Image : At Deepwater Horizon, Basic Research Was Applied

In the late 1930s, basic research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution led to surprising findings about sound propagation in seawater. The scientists, including Al Vine (above), immediately applied this new knowledge to build devices (bathythermographs) that sailors in World War II used to avoid detection by sonar—the first of many applications that revolutionized submarine warfare. (Courtesy of WHOI Archives)